The Night Wanderer: A Native Gothic Novel.

Stephanie McKenzie is a visiting assistant professor of English at Sir
Wilfred Grenfell College, Memorial University of Newfoundland. She is
the editor and co-publisher of However Blow the Winds: An Anthology of
Poetry and Song from Newfoundland & Labrado

Tiffany Hunter, a young Native teenager, is trying to find some meaning in life. Her mother has left home to live with her new boyfriend, who’s white. She’s having to deal with racism and other problems at school. Though her Granny Ruth still speaks in Anishinabe, Tiffany’s not interested in learning the language.

Then Pierre L’Errant, a weird guy from Europe, moves into the basement of Tiffany’s home. L’Errant seems hundreds of years old, but says he is in his early 20s. He looks Anishinabe and claims to be of Native ancestry. “His movements [are] slow, soft and deliberate—like those of an animal hunting its prey.” He cannot live in daylight. He turns out to be a Native vampire—a Wendigo or fierce owl warned about in Anishinabe traditional stories—who is returning home.

Angry at her white boyfriend, who treats her poorly, Tiffany flees into the late-night forest. There she encounters L’Errant. It’s an encounter that changes her life.

The Night Wanderer is important, intriguing, and well worth the read. Its engaging, tight narrative has us turning pages quickly to find out how the mystery will unfold. Cultural stereotypes are challenged throughout the story. Perhaps the one bit of criticism is that L’Errant is not very scary. We know he likes and lives on human blood, but the narrative puts us on his side so that we feel compassion for him and like him. But that said, this book is a page-turner young adult readers will enjoy. Recommended.